The present application relates to alarm systems in general and more specifically to a system of remotely monitoring alarm systems.
In the past, there have been two primary ways of remotely monitoring alarm systems within a building. FIG. 1 shows one of the prior art systems and methods. Building 105 contains an alarm system 106 which then initiates communication with a local alarm monitoring station 115 via telephone line 110. Alarm system 106 is well known in the art and may be a Honeywell model 6000 alarm system.
Once an alarm indication has been received at the local monitoring station 115, a decoder 120 decodes the alarm indication and provides the information to computer 125. Computer 125 stores information such as the name of the owner of building 105, the address of building 105, and the appropriate fire or police agency to notify of the alarm condition. Thereafter, an operator (not shown) may call police station 135 via telephone 130. Handling of the alarm may be shifted to a Hub station 140 over transmission path 150 as shown in co-pending U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 07/1942696 and 07/942690, by Ballesty et al. and assigned to the assignee of the present application.
The second primary way of monitoring alarms is shown in FIG. 2. Please note that two separate cities, city A and city B, are shown but that city A and city B are identical in all relevant aspects. In the second scheme, alarm system 206a, which may be similar or identical to alarm system 106, produces an alarm across telephone line 210a to local monitoring station 215a. However, local monitoring station 215a does not contain any information on how to respond to an alarm indication. The local monitoring station merely receives alarm indications from an alarm unit and passes them to a hub station 230 via communication link 225a where record information on all monitored alarm systems was stored. This system provided the benefit for the owner of building 205a in that the telephone call from building 205a to alarm monitoring station 215a is a local phone call thus not requiring toll charges. Communications link 225a may extend between distant cities and may require a long distance phone call.
A shortcoming of these systems is that regardless of the number of calls received at the hub station, all calls must be handled by that hub station.